As 60,000 fans filled Kyiv’s newly modernised Olympic Stadium in July for the Euro 2012 football championship final, it appeared in some ways to cement Ukraine’s membership of the European “family” of nations.
The
country’s co-hosting of the tournament with Poland – the first time two
former socialist bloc states have done so since the Berlin Wall fell –
was widely deemed a success. It attracted hundreds of thousands of
visitors, while the estimated $5bn Ukraine poured into infrastructure
investments and other preparations will give the country a lasting
boost.
“Everything we built for the championship will remain; new highways,
airports, high-speed trains – all this will work for our economy,” says
Mykola Azarov, the prime minister.
